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The House of the Lost on the Cape (Japan, 2021) [JFTFP 2022]
On March 3, 2011, the Oshika Peninsula of the Tohoku Region in Japan became the site of one of the most devastating earthquakes in recent history, what is now referred to as the Great East Japan Earthquake. The region was hit by a 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake which later resulted in a tsunami. Add to…
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Post-Dilawan Cinema and the Pandemic
I’m presenting today my new book, Post-Dilawan Cinema and the Pandemic. An admittedly premature and late responses to dominating cinematic forms in Philippine cinema the past 6 years. In this book, I tried to present a framework of what we may call as Post-Dilawan Cinema and its precedent, Dilawan Cinema, both of which suggests an…
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Gensan Punch (Philippines/Japan, 2021)
Let me cut to the chase, Gensan Punch is Brillante Mendoza’s best work to date. It seems that years of practicing an interrogative approach to realism has honed Mendoza’s style and lead him towards the moment to shoot a boxing match. And the best thing about this movie is that it does not pretend to be anything…
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On Darryl Yap’s “Sarap Mong Patayin”, Philippine Cinema, and Violence: Fragments
I What may be lacking in contemporary Philippine cinema is an interrogation of violence. Save for one documentary, the Philippine Cinema scene seems to actively avoid the topic or the theme. The avoidance is so apparent that even attempts to make an action film compelling to watch fails. It is in this context that Darryl…
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Need Space?
a response to Jason Tan Liwag’s op-ed, “Is there still space for the Filipino film critic?”
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Ano’ng nangyari…?
Bale itong post na ito ay tugon sa isang tanong mula sa curiouscat account ko ng isang anonymous. Ito yung tanong nya: “ano nangyari sa PH cinema? bakit nung 2nd golden age naman may maayos naman na lumabas na mga pelikula? ano sa tingin mo yung major factor bat nag regress yung quality after that…
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Wonderful Paradise (Japan, 2020) [JAPAN CUTS 2021]
It’s safe to say that Masashi Yamamoto’s Wonderful Paradise is a nod to the surrealist Luis Bunuel’s eccentricities, especially in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972). If one is looking for weird, then this film delivers. It is even reminiscent of the attempts of the Katsuhito Ishii-led Grasshoppa clique with their fusion of CGI, tokusatsu and deadpan in Funky…
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The Blue Danube (Japan, 2020) [JAPAN CUTS 2021]
The first thing one will notice with The Blue Danube is the deadpan expression from its actors. But this isn’t the deadpan one can usually see from American indie: Akira Ikeda directed the film in this tone and in the most unapologetically theatrical sense. Due to its theatricality, the film presents a weird liveliness in that it…
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It’s a Summer Film! (2020)
Something is very telling with the way time-travel narratives appeal recently in Japanese Pop Culture. From anime’s Tokyo Revengers and Bokutachi no Remake, to interests captured by Summer Timemachine Blues’ recent restoration, to that latest one-take film, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes. Especially with the context of the on-going pandemic, that every day we seem…
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Barbarian Invasion (Malaysia, 2021) [NYAFF 2021]
Malaysian filmmaker Tan Chui Mui’s comeback after a decade, Barbarian Invasion brings about considerable departure from her 2010 feature, Year Without a Summer. As a first departure, Tan offers a genre work, a clear break from her past arthouse-inclined works. As a second departure, Barbarian Invasion does not just align with the current trend of female-fronted genre films in Southeast…